Beacons and Boundaries

At age 6, while riding on the top deck of a bus to the German school I attended in Edith Cavell Street, Hillbrow, I noticed a white cylindrical post with black vane on the east side of Oxford Road just after crossing Glenhove Road.  I asked my older sister and father what it could be but they had no idea. Although seeing it daily intrigued me then, I thought no more of it and, in time, forgot about it after our family had moved premises.

Seventy-seven years later, in 2014, I again noticed the same post and realised it was a survey or trigonometrical beacon. The reason for not having seen it since my wife and I had moved to Melrose Estate in 1997 is because the beacon had partly been obscured by a hedge. Now that the adjoining stands had been cleared, the beacon was easily visible. The stands had been cleared to make way for a substantial office development comprising two huge office blocks, now partly occupied by Coca-Cola head office.

Retired professional land surveyor Werner Kirchhoff shows how he was able to confirm that the beacon he saw along Oxford Road in Rosebank was the one he used to see from a trolleybus years ago. (Itumeleng English - The Star)

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In the early 1990s the Sandton Historical Association, with expert guidance from Professional Land Surveyor Werner Kirchhoff hoped to erect a Beacon monument to mark the boundary line between two of Sandton's original farms. Although the initiative did not get past the planning stage, the vision for the project was documented in an excellent article written by Avril Reid and Kirchhoff. Below are a few extracts from the article (SHA's 1993 annual magazine) revealing some fascinating history about beacons and boundaries.

A beacon, or boundary corner mark, marking the division between two of Sandton’s old farms was recently relocated at the South-Western corner of Sandown at the junction of West Street, Linden Road and Wierda Road East. It is at a point where traffic improvements will make a new island and it is proposed to mark this historic point with a concrete pyramid replacing the original stone cairn.

Proposed Sandton Beacon

This interesting landmark has been relocated by Werner Kirchhoff, Professional Land Surveyor, who was instructed by Nedcor to resurvey the boundaries of Erf 535 Sandown Extension 44 where they are extending their Technical Information Centre.

During the early years of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (Transvaal), land ownership was extremely important - abundant land was a principal reason for the Great Trek. The Sandton beacon identified above...