Padday grew up in a Quaker household surrounded by cellos and the sound of his family playing, an upbringing that formed his ear for the instrument long before he thought to make one. He studied at Newark School of Violin Making, where he was among the students involved in the making of a cello presented to HRH The Prince of Wales — a commission that marked, for the workshop, a moment of formal recognition. After an early period making violas, he turned his full attention to the cello, drawn by the growing enthusiasm of players and teachers of the first rank. He and Louise ran a workshop in Wells, the local cathedral city, for a period before returning to their home workshop in Chesterblade to pursue their craft with greater concentration and on their own terms, allowing them to mamimise the time spent with their growing family. He subsequently returned to Newark as a teacher, taking responsibility for the third and final year of the course — the year in which students make their cello — a role he held until around 2019, and one that placed him at the centre of the tradition he had himself been formed by.
Over forty years of making, teaching, and sustained engagement with the instruments of the English tradition, Padday has become one of the more knowledgeable voices in the field of old English cellos — an expertise built not from scholarship alone but from the accumulated experience of a working life spent in close company with the instruments themselves.
His daughter, Sarah, now follows in his footsteps, independently working as a maker, restorer, and dealer of fine instruments having trained as a cellist at YMS and RCM.