Burnley's The Royal Dyche pub landlady shocks Clarets fans and customers with 'name change' at popular watering hole

Customers and Clarets fans were shocked when they saw The Royal Dyche had been re-named The Royal Kompany…… until they realised what day it was and the whole thing was an April Fool!

Landlady Justine Bedford came up with the idea for the April Fool on Saturday and her artistic wife, Steph, photoshopped an image of the pub complete with its new name and signage. Justine said: “It was great to see we got so many people with this.”

And while Justine has praised Clarets boss Vincent Kompany for doing a ‘fantastic job’ she has vowed that The Royal Dyche name will remain adding: “You can’t undo the incredible decade under Sean Dyche so I will never change the name while I own the pub, despite people asking me when I am going to change it on a daily basis.”

Justine re-named the Yorkshire Street establishment in honour of the former Burnley FC boss Sean Dyche in 2018. Dyche honoured a long standing promise to visit the pub in July last year and was met with a hero’s welcome.

The town went into shock exactly a year ago when the popular boss was sacked but Justine vowed there and then that the pub name would stay in recognition of Dyche who twice led the Clarets to promotion to the Premier League and a return to European football after half a century.