Family Card - Person Sheet
Family Card - Person Sheet
NameMarie Elise Auguste PONNDORF 
, 891
, 891Birth20 July 1876, Uder, Near Heiligenstadt, Prussia1753
Census2 April 1911, Monks Road, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England1756 Age: 34
Census29 September 1939, 38 St Barnabas Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England1754 Age: 63
Death11 March 1952, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England1757 Age: 75
OccupationUnpaid Domestic Duties 19391754
FatherWilhelm PONNDORF , 4841
Spouses
1Richard DUCKERING 
, 890
, 890Birth8 February 1879, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England1750
Census3 April 1881, 107 Heighington, Lincolnshire, England1751 Age: 2
Census5 April 1891, St Swithin, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England1752 Age: 12
Census31 March 1901, 101 Monks Road, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England1726 Age: 22
Census2 April 1911, Monks Road, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England1753 Age: 32
Census29 September 1939, 38 St Barnabas Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England1754 Age: 60
Death21 December 1964, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England1755 Age: 85
EducationScholar79
OccupationEngineer Mechanical 1901 & 1911, Partner in Firm of Cable Code Singlers 19391726,1753,1754
FatherCharles DUCKERING , 886 (1841-1916)
MotherSarah Anne PARKER , 889 (1842-1915)
Family ID753
ChildrenCharles Richard Ponndorf , 892 (1905-1992)
Isabel Marie , 893 (1910-1987)
Ruth Erica , 894 (1914-2004)
Notes for Marie Elise Auguste PONNDORF
(Ruth, Marie's daughter, 2/96)
Marie was a strong Christian. (Ruth D. conversation 9.3.96)
Marie was a strong Christian. (Ruth D. conversation 9.3.96)
Notes for Richard (Spouse 1)
Article by Mark Duckering 2021 - Duckering’s Iron Foundry, 1845-1962. Continued.
In 1912, Charles retired after 50 years in the business, dying in 1916, and his son, Richard, took over the company and its debts. During the First World War, the company supplied parts for the newly-invented tank, which helped stave off bankruptcy. Business flourised and several hundred staff members employed.
However, once the war was over, the industrial slump hit hard. Charles’s grandson Dick Duckering, writing in 1963, noted that ‘because of Richard’s generosity at Christmas and many poor investments, including acquiring many small houses that soon generated into slums, he ran up a large overdraft’. This led Richard to sell the shop in September 1922 and, at around the same time, he turned the foundry business into a limited company. Four years later, Richard Duckering Ltd collapsed. The company’s debts were finally settled with the sale of the family home. Richard Duckering then left Lincoln for good.
The business was taken over by the former works manager, Walter H. Freeman, who moved to the company in 1919. In April 1933 in the Lincolnshire Chronicle, he was described as a ‘worthy successor to his predecessor’. He remained as chairman and managing director until his death in 1939, aged 62. Walter Freeman left the company on a sound footing and it continued to prosper durin gthe war years following his death. The company’s profits were used to fund improvements to the factory with the conversion of an old-raid shelter into a washroom in 1947 and a new pattern shop built in 1948.
Duckering’s shop and show rooms continued to operate throughout the war, regularly advertising in the local press as retailers of fireplaces, sanitary fittings and general hardware. In the immediate post-war years, Duckering’s sought to cater to the needs of the city’s more aspirational home owners. In the late 1940s, the company’s advertisements encouraging customers to ‘modernize your bathroom’ so as to avoid ‘embarrassment when you ahve guests’. It offered an ‘extensive range of modern fireplaces’ at its large showrooms at 25-33 Monks Road, and it proudly noted that it had supplied sanitary and bathroom equipment to the newly-opened Constance Stewart Hall at Lincoln Training College in October 1950, despite the ‘diffcult days of supply’ that it mentioned in a Christmas advertisment later that year.
Percy G.M. Freeman, the son of Walter, was a member of the company’s board at the time of his father’s death. He continued his association with the compnay and, when he died in 1952, aged 47, he was running the operation. His widow, Gwendolen, took on the business employing a manager in early 1954. After 12 months or os a new system for producing castings was introduced using gas to freeze the moulding sand. According to a former employee, Alex Wilcockson, speaking in 2005, this new process was one ‘to which the management was 100% committed’. It required the ‘irreversible modification of everything and every pattern box.’ Two extensions were made to the moulding shop in 1954 and 1955 for this purpose. At the time Duckering’s largest client was the electrical engineering company Lancashire Dynamo amd Crypto Company, based in Trafford Park, Manchester. Sadly, as Alex Wilkcockson observed ‘this system failed miserably resulting in a poor final product and despite many attempts the required improvements couldn’t be made - certainly not to mr Freeman’s standards. Subsequently the orders from Manchester dried up.’
The costs incurred in this venture and the loss of orders eventually led to the demise of the firm. In June 1962 it was announced, after 117 years, that Richard Duckering Ltd was going into voluntary liquidation. The Lincoln Y.M.C.A. and a Siemens’ car park now occupy the site. Evidence of Duckering’s manufacturing output , though, can still be seen accross hte city, as Arthur Ward’s chapter on street furniture indicates.
End of article.
When Richard was appointed the Manager of the business in his fathers will, his salary was set at £500, plus a bonus, which was based on the profits. (See Charles's will on his file.)
The 1905 Kelly's Directory records Richard's address as 143 Monks Road. (Mark 8.97)
Richard followed in his fathers footsteps into the Iron and Brass foundry. During the First War the factory had to switch to helping with the war effort. This meant that Richard's wife Marie, who was German and living in England had to disguise her nationality. (Ruth D. conversation 9.3.96)
'Messrs Richard Duckering, Waterside Works, Lincoln. These works were started in 1845 by Richard Duckering, for the manufacture of kitchen ranges and agricultural implements, and he was followed by his son , Mr Charles Duckering, who retired from the business in 1912, and died five years later. Mr Richard Duckering (grandson of the founder) took over the business in 1917, and early in the present year turned it into a limited liability company. From the beginning, the foundry has formed the chief portion of business, and is at present being extended to meetc onstantly increasing demand for high-class iron castings, for which the firm have always had a good reputation.' Taken from the Journal of Instituation of Mechanical Engineering, October1920, Lincoln Library, page 799. (Mark 14.5.97)
After the First War, the business struggled and sought other work. This is illustrated by an extract from and article on Clayton Wagons Ltd., which was the rights to supplying spares. (Jill Dyson 22.4.96)
Richard sailed on the SS Ryndam from Rotterdam 27th March 1928 and arrived New York 8th April 1928. The ship records records he is British aged 49, occupation as ‘cable code simplifier’, born Lincoln and gives his nearest relatives address, his wife as, 22 Planthorpe Road, London SW16. See copy on file.1759,1760
'After the demise of Clayton Wagons Ltd., in 1930, the drawings, patterns and templates passed into the hands of Richard Duckering Ltd., Waterside Works, Lincoln, who then undertook to supply spare parts for both the railmotors and the industrial locomotives.'
A further article says that shortly after this the iron foundry closed. There was a Duckering hardware store at Baldertongate, Newark between 1937 to 1965. Various adverts in the Kelly's directory. (Mark 14.5.97)
See copy of letter dated 6th April 1939 from P G M Freeman, Managing Director of Richard Duckering Ltd to Messrs Abbott & Co (Newark) Ltd.
Richard sailed on the SS Scythia from Liverpool 2nd August arriving New York 12th August 1940 aged 61, giving no occupation, nationality English, born Lincoln, living in London and giving his nearest friend as a contact, Herbert Cotter of 4 Ranelagh Gardens, Hurlington, London SW6. It also records he visited in New York in 1928 and that he was visting his sister Mrs Armit at Fort Warren, Manitoba. See copy on file.1761
See copy of advert for “Duckerings Hardware Ltd.. Directors: T M Keightley, E W Dean, F Beaumont” in the The Digger magazine Vol. 12. No. 2 July-December, 1942. Price 3d.
The premises were demolished in 1965, with the YMCA now occuppying where the main building was. See photographs. (Mark 8.97)
Notes from 'The Abell Collection'. (Scrap books on microfilm at Lincoln Library).
Lincolnshire Echo 22.6.1962 - 'Lincoln Firm to be Wound Up'
'The engineering firm of Richard DUCKERING Ltd of Waterside Lincoln is going into voluntary liquidation.'
'An extraordinary general meeting of the company has resolved that the company be wound up.'
'A declaration of solvency has been filed establishing that all creditors will be paid in due course.'
'Appointed joint liquidators are Percy Cauldwell of 93 Queen Street, Sheffield & Philip Gordon Stone of Newland Chambers, Lincoln.'
'The company will shortly cease trading.'
'The firm was established by the late Mr Richard Duckering in 1845 on a site on the opposite side of the river to the one now in use.'
'The move to the present site took place in the late 1850's.'
(Mark letter 14.12.00)
Leaflet: 'Made in Lincoln: Industrial Heritage Trail - A selfguided tour of some of Lincoln's manufacturing companies, past & present.' Published by John Williams & The Lincoln Engineering Society, February 2000.
Text as follows:
'Richard Duckering Ltd., Charles Duckering was a native of Retford. In 1845 he came to Lincoln and formed the partnership Burton & Duckering, located on Waterside North. Around 1856 his son Charles joined the company and later inherited it. The company grew and they moved to the north of the river to their new "Waterside Works". They gradually filled the entire block now the site of ABB Alstom Power's employees car park and the YMCA. By 1874 they were manufacturing farm implements, kitchn ranges, grates, guttering and lamposts etc. By the 1900's they were making corn grinding machines in substantial numbers, but their main business was as iron founders producing large quantities of iron castings especially for the building trade and other local engineering companies. Around 1907 they opened a showroom at 25-33 Monks Road trading separately as Duckering's hardware Ltd. The showroom closed in 1966 and is now a charity shop. Following the death of Charles Duckering in 1916, his son Richard who had been running the company since 1912, renamed the company Richard Duckering & Co Ltd. While the company closed down in 1961 it is still possible to find dotted around Lincoln, examples of Duckering drain grates, manhole covers and lamposts.
In 1912, Charles retired after 50 years in the business, dying in 1916, and his son, Richard, took over the company and its debts. During the First World War, the company supplied parts for the newly-invented tank, which helped stave off bankruptcy. Business flourised and several hundred staff members employed.
However, once the war was over, the industrial slump hit hard. Charles’s grandson Dick Duckering, writing in 1963, noted that ‘because of Richard’s generosity at Christmas and many poor investments, including acquiring many small houses that soon generated into slums, he ran up a large overdraft’. This led Richard to sell the shop in September 1922 and, at around the same time, he turned the foundry business into a limited company. Four years later, Richard Duckering Ltd collapsed. The company’s debts were finally settled with the sale of the family home. Richard Duckering then left Lincoln for good.
The business was taken over by the former works manager, Walter H. Freeman, who moved to the company in 1919. In April 1933 in the Lincolnshire Chronicle, he was described as a ‘worthy successor to his predecessor’. He remained as chairman and managing director until his death in 1939, aged 62. Walter Freeman left the company on a sound footing and it continued to prosper durin gthe war years following his death. The company’s profits were used to fund improvements to the factory with the conversion of an old-raid shelter into a washroom in 1947 and a new pattern shop built in 1948.
Duckering’s shop and show rooms continued to operate throughout the war, regularly advertising in the local press as retailers of fireplaces, sanitary fittings and general hardware. In the immediate post-war years, Duckering’s sought to cater to the needs of the city’s more aspirational home owners. In the late 1940s, the company’s advertisements encouraging customers to ‘modernize your bathroom’ so as to avoid ‘embarrassment when you ahve guests’. It offered an ‘extensive range of modern fireplaces’ at its large showrooms at 25-33 Monks Road, and it proudly noted that it had supplied sanitary and bathroom equipment to the newly-opened Constance Stewart Hall at Lincoln Training College in October 1950, despite the ‘diffcult days of supply’ that it mentioned in a Christmas advertisment later that year.
Percy G.M. Freeman, the son of Walter, was a member of the company’s board at the time of his father’s death. He continued his association with the compnay and, when he died in 1952, aged 47, he was running the operation. His widow, Gwendolen, took on the business employing a manager in early 1954. After 12 months or os a new system for producing castings was introduced using gas to freeze the moulding sand. According to a former employee, Alex Wilcockson, speaking in 2005, this new process was one ‘to which the management was 100% committed’. It required the ‘irreversible modification of everything and every pattern box.’ Two extensions were made to the moulding shop in 1954 and 1955 for this purpose. At the time Duckering’s largest client was the electrical engineering company Lancashire Dynamo amd Crypto Company, based in Trafford Park, Manchester. Sadly, as Alex Wilkcockson observed ‘this system failed miserably resulting in a poor final product and despite many attempts the required improvements couldn’t be made - certainly not to mr Freeman’s standards. Subsequently the orders from Manchester dried up.’
The costs incurred in this venture and the loss of orders eventually led to the demise of the firm. In June 1962 it was announced, after 117 years, that Richard Duckering Ltd was going into voluntary liquidation. The Lincoln Y.M.C.A. and a Siemens’ car park now occupy the site. Evidence of Duckering’s manufacturing output , though, can still be seen accross hte city, as Arthur Ward’s chapter on street furniture indicates.
End of article.
When Richard was appointed the Manager of the business in his fathers will, his salary was set at £500, plus a bonus, which was based on the profits. (See Charles's will on his file.)
The 1905 Kelly's Directory records Richard's address as 143 Monks Road. (Mark 8.97)
Richard followed in his fathers footsteps into the Iron and Brass foundry. During the First War the factory had to switch to helping with the war effort. This meant that Richard's wife Marie, who was German and living in England had to disguise her nationality. (Ruth D. conversation 9.3.96)
'Messrs Richard Duckering, Waterside Works, Lincoln. These works were started in 1845 by Richard Duckering, for the manufacture of kitchen ranges and agricultural implements, and he was followed by his son , Mr Charles Duckering, who retired from the business in 1912, and died five years later. Mr Richard Duckering (grandson of the founder) took over the business in 1917, and early in the present year turned it into a limited liability company. From the beginning, the foundry has formed the chief portion of business, and is at present being extended to meetc onstantly increasing demand for high-class iron castings, for which the firm have always had a good reputation.' Taken from the Journal of Instituation of Mechanical Engineering, October1920, Lincoln Library, page 799. (Mark 14.5.97)
After the First War, the business struggled and sought other work. This is illustrated by an extract from and article on Clayton Wagons Ltd., which was the rights to supplying spares. (Jill Dyson 22.4.96)
Richard sailed on the SS Ryndam from Rotterdam 27th March 1928 and arrived New York 8th April 1928. The ship records records he is British aged 49, occupation as ‘cable code simplifier’, born Lincoln and gives his nearest relatives address, his wife as, 22 Planthorpe Road, London SW16. See copy on file.1759,1760
'After the demise of Clayton Wagons Ltd., in 1930, the drawings, patterns and templates passed into the hands of Richard Duckering Ltd., Waterside Works, Lincoln, who then undertook to supply spare parts for both the railmotors and the industrial locomotives.'
A further article says that shortly after this the iron foundry closed. There was a Duckering hardware store at Baldertongate, Newark between 1937 to 1965. Various adverts in the Kelly's directory. (Mark 14.5.97)
See copy of letter dated 6th April 1939 from P G M Freeman, Managing Director of Richard Duckering Ltd to Messrs Abbott & Co (Newark) Ltd.
Richard sailed on the SS Scythia from Liverpool 2nd August arriving New York 12th August 1940 aged 61, giving no occupation, nationality English, born Lincoln, living in London and giving his nearest friend as a contact, Herbert Cotter of 4 Ranelagh Gardens, Hurlington, London SW6. It also records he visited in New York in 1928 and that he was visting his sister Mrs Armit at Fort Warren, Manitoba. See copy on file.1761
See copy of advert for “Duckerings Hardware Ltd.. Directors: T M Keightley, E W Dean, F Beaumont” in the The Digger magazine Vol. 12. No. 2 July-December, 1942. Price 3d.
The premises were demolished in 1965, with the YMCA now occuppying where the main building was. See photographs. (Mark 8.97)
Notes from 'The Abell Collection'. (Scrap books on microfilm at Lincoln Library).
Lincolnshire Echo 22.6.1962 - 'Lincoln Firm to be Wound Up'
'The engineering firm of Richard DUCKERING Ltd of Waterside Lincoln is going into voluntary liquidation.'
'An extraordinary general meeting of the company has resolved that the company be wound up.'
'A declaration of solvency has been filed establishing that all creditors will be paid in due course.'
'Appointed joint liquidators are Percy Cauldwell of 93 Queen Street, Sheffield & Philip Gordon Stone of Newland Chambers, Lincoln.'
'The company will shortly cease trading.'
'The firm was established by the late Mr Richard Duckering in 1845 on a site on the opposite side of the river to the one now in use.'
'The move to the present site took place in the late 1850's.'
(Mark letter 14.12.00)
Leaflet: 'Made in Lincoln: Industrial Heritage Trail - A selfguided tour of some of Lincoln's manufacturing companies, past & present.' Published by John Williams & The Lincoln Engineering Society, February 2000.
Text as follows:
'Richard Duckering Ltd., Charles Duckering was a native of Retford. In 1845 he came to Lincoln and formed the partnership Burton & Duckering, located on Waterside North. Around 1856 his son Charles joined the company and later inherited it. The company grew and they moved to the north of the river to their new "Waterside Works". They gradually filled the entire block now the site of ABB Alstom Power's employees car park and the YMCA. By 1874 they were manufacturing farm implements, kitchn ranges, grates, guttering and lamposts etc. By the 1900's they were making corn grinding machines in substantial numbers, but their main business was as iron founders producing large quantities of iron castings especially for the building trade and other local engineering companies. Around 1907 they opened a showroom at 25-33 Monks Road trading separately as Duckering's hardware Ltd. The showroom closed in 1966 and is now a charity shop. Following the death of Charles Duckering in 1916, his son Richard who had been running the company since 1912, renamed the company Richard Duckering & Co Ltd. While the company closed down in 1961 it is still possible to find dotted around Lincoln, examples of Duckering drain grates, manhole covers and lamposts.
Notes for Richard & Marie Elise Auguste (Family)
Lincolnshire Chronicle, 3 June 1904. Marriages. Duckering-Ponndorf. On May 28th, at Neuen lutherischen Kirche, Cassel, Germany, Richard Duckering (son of Charles Duckering, Lincoln), to Elise Marie, youngest daughter of Wilhelm Ponndorf, Cassel.