GBC
Traditional Fisheries

Pad (Fish)

Modern equivalent

Half a hundred = 60 mackerel, approx. 98–112 lb

A lidded wicker basket holding half a hundred of mackerel, being seven to eight stone of fish, and the standard unit of the Newlyn mackerel trade.

The pad descends from the Elizabethan ped, and its distinguishing feature was a wicker flap lid that fastened down. That allowed pads to be stacked two or three high without crushing the contents, which mattered enormously once the railway reached Penzance in 1866 and Newlyn mackerel began travelling overnight to Billingsgate. Five casts made a pad and two pads a hundred. The actual fish count varied wildly with size: reports from 1867 describe exceptional mackerel filling a pad with only forty, while in April 1871 it took a hundred small ones.

We use a small number of essential cookies to remember your theme preference and your recent conversions. Those are always on, because the site cannot work without them.

We would also like to use Google Analytics to understand which pages people find useful. That is entirely optional, and declining changes nothing about how the site works for you. Read the cookie policy.