All the way from Sydney, three granddaughters and around 50 descendants of the late Black Mountain Baptist Church Pastor, Reverend Sydney Hotston travelled to the New England on Sunday for the ceremony.

The granddaughters, Joan Barbara Altwasser, Ann Lougher and Valerie Nancy Moore unveiled a sign, which explains the new naming of the road, in honour of their grandfather who was pastor and a resident of the village for over 23 years.

“The unveiling means that the name Hotston will be carried on because there’s no males in our family now to carry on the name and with this the name Hotston will go on forever,” Ms Moore said.

Reverend Hotston’s life and the impact he made within the community, as a pioneer, became an “obsession” for retired Baptist minister David Betts who began researching the family history over two years ago.

“I’ve become really excited about the significance of this church to the Baptist Church” Mr Betts said.

“The congregations that were run from this building added up to the biggest Baptist Church north of Newcastle for half a century.

“There’s so much about Sydney Hotston that I am becoming aware of and his amazing contribution.”

Armidale Regional Council engineering officer Mark Burgess said the road, which runs along the western boundary of the church, had to be named as part of the requirements for a new subdivision nearby.

“We reached a point where we couldn’t name the internal roads [of the subdivision] until we named this stretch of road,” Mr Burgess said.

“I thought ‘wouldn’t it be nice if we named the road after something relevant to the church’ and one thing led to another.

“It’s really quite special for me because it’s just another job, another pile of paper work and a bureaucratic process but then to do something like this and see all these people arrive is great.

“It really brings a lot of satisfaction to the job.”

Reverend Hotston passed away in 1928 and is buried in the Black Mountain Baptist Cemetery, opposite the church.