Venters Kloof No. 168

168 on the cadastre · on record 1833–1899 · show on the map

Farm number: No. 168
On the cadastre: 168, whole farmregistered as VENTERS KLOOF
District: Prince Albert
Extent, as the diagram states it: 1225 morgen
Modern surveyed area: 847.7 ha

The historic extent and the modern surveyed area are two separate measurements and are not presented here as confirming each other. The first is what a surveyor wrote on a diagram, usually in morgen. The second is what the modern cadastre draws.

Why this farm is here

Ground a written history is set on. 12 km from Klaarstroom.

story A written history names this ground The fifteenth of April, 1841
story A written history names this ground The men who drew the lines
border Shares a boundary with Middelwater Middelwater
border Shares a boundary with Reim Hoogte No. 167 Reim Hoogte No. 167
…and 2 more, listed in full further down this page.

Stories

mentions this farm The fifteenth of April, 1841
One surveyor works the Koup for two seasons. Eight years later, on a single day, the Crown turns a dozen loan farms into freehold - and the map of the district is set for a century.
mentions this farm The men who drew the lines
Every farm here passes through two officials: a veldkornet who knew the ground, and a surveyor paid by the sheet. Forty-two surveyor signatures over 172 years, a century of ward officers, and a ward boundary changing by hand on a 1934 diagram. The first surveyor, C. Lennox Stretch, was later dismissed for taking the Xhosa side.

What the record holds, in order

August 1833 document SG diagram B353/1833
Bf.W.Q.5-16
1899 document SG diagram verso B353/1833 (verso)

Bordered by, as the diagram names them

Also bordered by, as the modern cadastre draws it

Ground that touches this farm on the Surveyor-General's current polygons and that none of the diagrams held here names. Derived from the geometry, not read off a document.

Documents

Scan of Surveyor-General diagram, B353/1833, August 1833

Surveyor-General diagram, B353/1833, August 1833
10TVK501.jpg

Scan of Diagram verso, B353/1833 (verso), 1899

Diagram verso, B353/1833 (verso), 1899
10TVK801.jpg

Cadastre

Surveyor-General diagram index for this parcel

Research notes

[31 Jul 2026 inbox] MIDDELWATER'S NORTHERN NEIGHBOUR - the 1833 diagram is bounded 'South by Middlewater' (DOC-0124). A HALF loan farm, so an existing loan place already split before Stretch surveyed it in Aug 1833; titled 15 Apr 1841 on Bf.W.Q.5-16. Lots A and B went in 1899 as 168/1 and 168/2. THE SHEET NAMES NO HOLDER, which is unusual in this series and is the whole difficulty with the obvious question about the name - see LEAD-0027.

The research behind this page, kept separate from it: dated working notes, open questions, and what is not yet settled.

Open questions

Is Venters Kloof named for Adriana Cecilia Venter's family - and did the Oosthuizens follow them to the Koup? priority 1 · LEAD-0027
Venters Kloof No. 168 lies immediately north of Middelwater No. 169, and the root ancestor Ockert Almero OosthuizenL married ADRIANA CECILIA VENTER. Did her family hold that kloof, and is that why the Oosthuizens ended up on the ground next to it?

What would settle it A Venter named as holder or grantee of No. 168. Equally decisive the other way: a grantee of another surname, which would make the name a fossil of an earlier occupier and kill the family connection.

What the record is missing

Nobody is on record as ever having held this third order · B8 never-held
Venters Kloof No. 168 is in the model and drawn on the map, and carries no ownership record of any kind, not a grant, not a transfer, not an occupation.

What would settle it The Surveyor-General's diagram for the farm number names the grantee and the date; the deed reference on it opens the transfer chain.

Found by breaks.py reading the model against itself, not written by hand, each one is a shape of missing record, not a fault in the data. The whole set is on the questions page.