A woman has blasted a sewing shop for selling fabric with prints of golliwog dolls on it after it left her black boyfriend gobsmacked.

Georgina Rebecca, 26, said the decision from the World of Sewing, in Tunbridge Wells, to sell the anti-black material was "disrespectful and hurtful".

Georgina, a lawyer, has lived in the town with her partner Pas Onyedi, 28, since 2019 and has used the Camden Road store for years.

But following a recent visit the pair were left feeling uncomfortable after spotting the fabric with the infamous caricature.

The former Staplehurst resident thinks it is a prime example of the lack of diversity in Tunbridge Wells and the difficulties she has faced in an interracial couple.

She said: "Pas walked over to me and his jaw was dropped after seeing it.

"I get that people who are a bit older don't see why it is offensive these days, but it's really offensive and just an example of the behaviour and microagressions black people face in a majority white area."

Mr Onyedi, an accountant, moved to Tunbridge Wells to live with his partner in 2019 and Georgina says the pair have had people shaking their heads at them while they walk down the street holding hands.

After becoming upset with how the incident left her boyfriend feeling, Georgina popped into the shop to tell the owner the fabric was making customers feel uncomfortable.

Expecting a polite conversation, she claims she was met with a dismissive man who defended his right to sell the fabric.

She said: "I explained to him how it made us uncomfortable and the impact it can have on people, but he kept saying the fabric was grey and not black.

"I told him it was clearly a racist image of a black person - also known as a minstrel - and he just shrugged."

She claims the shop owner told her he had plenty of black customers who didn't have a problem with the fabric and there was only a couple of black people who "totally lost their minds" at it.

"He said people kept buying it, so I said told him people still by Hitler memorabilia but it doesn't make it right or legal," she added.

"I told him I respected his opinion but I wouldn't be coming back again and he was just disrespectful, which was disappointing."

Georgina wants to highlight the constant incidents she and her partner face, including people coming up and touching Mr Onyedi's hair unannounced, or the dodgy looks they receive in public.

She said: "He is seen as an oddity in Tunbridge Wells. Why is it acceptable? It's incredibly frustrating."

Garry Pinkerton, from the family run business which opened in 1974, said the fabric is popular with many customers and has now sold out.

He said: "We are a large haberdashery and fabric retail shop, stocking over 50,00 products.

"The range of fabric is called Jolly Gollies and is manufactured by a New Zealand fabric distributor with a UK importer, we are just one of their retailers.

"The fabric is widely available on the internet. The image on the range are fun loving characters with a clearly grey coloured face.

"We do not censor our fabrics. We have fabrics with religious symbols, images of drinking establishments, gambling, national flags, distinctive male and female fabric, happy birthday and Christmas designs. All of which can be offensive or inappropriate to some people."

Mr Pinkerton said he has received a number of complaints over the past decade from "caucasian ladies all of a similar age".

He added: "We have had many people of different ethnicity’s find this a popular range.

"We have taken this to major exhibitions throughout the county and it has been one of our best sellers.

"The range has now gone out of print so we will not be able to replenish the range which is common with the fabric market.

"Having been in the family business for nearly fifty years we have never thought ourselves racist in any form.

"I myself have a mixed race son-in-law who loves the fabric to such an extent he’s made garments out of it."

It is the second time in three years Mr Pinkerton and the store have come under fire for selling the controversial product.

In 2019 the shop's owners said their fabric is not discriminatory as the product's name does not use what bosses describe as the offensive part of the word golliwog.