Welcome to the Pickled Cabbage ( Kiseli Kupus ) Website.

The contents of this site are intended to offer you a snapshot of the Serbian community, many of whom settled here in the North of England, shortly after the end of the Second World War.

Our aim is to give you a flavour of the different generations as they arrived in the UK and a taste of everyday life as they grew up in the north of England. They tended to settle mainly in the industrial Yorkshire towns and cities like Bradford, Leeds Wakefield, Huddersfield and Halifax. There was also a large contingent of Serbs who settled in the various other industrial textile towns of Lancashire.

Throughout the struggles and strives of their early lives, and through much hard work, the exiled Serbs managed to build solid foundations for future development. This enabled them to forge a better future for their children here in the predominantly textile heartland of the country, and at one time, of the World. The early fifties saw the arrival of wives and children of those exiled Serbs. Due to the expanding Serbian community, new marriages followed resulting in a local Serbian baby boom of the late fifties and early sixties. Thus, the first-born UK generation was formed, many of who are now in their late forties and early fifties. This was followed by the second born, and now even third born generations. All have different tales to tell from slightly differing viewpoints. We will attempt to show you a sample of their lives and anecdotes and what it was/is like to be Serbian and living in Britain. These scenarios ranged from getting on the wrong bus/trains, as many were unable to read and write English, to pickling cabbages which were nurtured in huge wooden barrels in many Serbian garden sheds and garages.

The first-born generation are now a credit to their parents/grandparents, as many went on to higher education and carved out prominent career paths for themselves. Many managed to successfully and seamlessly integrate into the British way of life, but at the same time uphold their cultural and religious heritage.

And last but not least we have the changing face of the community, where in the last fifteen years, the arrival of political refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants have brought with them, their own tales to tell.

Anyway, we hope you find the website informative, funny and even useful in our attempt to portray an anecdotal snapshot.

Happy Pickling!