Celebrating 70 Years of the Construction Health & Safety Group
1952 - 2022
Watch the History of CHSG
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Go Back In Time
In 1912 CHSG’s John Ryder Training Centre was Chertsey’s Infant School. The building has retained its educational purposes by becoming CHSG’s training centre for Health and Safety Courses.
A Full History
1952 - 1980
1952 – London Building & Engineering Contractors Accident Prevention Group was established.
1958 First training centre at Enfield was opened and the Group changed its name to the London Construction Safety Group.
1959 – First Annual Dinner was held.
1960 – By 1960, LCSG were firmly established, offering 20 courses a year and booking 500 students onto the courses. LCSG had become industry leaders for Safety Training.
1961 – Appointment of first Specialist Construction Inspector, Douglas Short.
1967 – Second training centre in Putney was opened where Tower Crane Driver courses were offered for the first time. A Banksman/Slingers and Crane Appreciation course for safety officers was introduced, making LCSG the only centre in Europe to offer a specific crane safety training course.
LCSG was involved in the construction sector of the International Social Security Association (ISSA) and was appointed as the sole representative for the UK.
1968 – Tom McCullough, Chief Inspector of Factories, was elected as President of the Group.
1974 – Health & Safety at Work Act was passed and RoSPA awarded the Group Society’s Gold Award .
1976 – The London Construction Safety Group renamed itself as the Construction Health & Safety Group (CHSG).
1977 – 25,000th student in attendance for the Group was awarded a special prize at a Monthly Meeting.
1981 - 2000
1981 – CHSG purchased ST Peters Parish Hall, formerly Windsor Street Infants School in Chertsey, and named it the John Ryder Training Centre.
1982 – The John Ryder Training Centre was formerly opened by the Lord Nugent of Guildford.
1983 – John Ryder retired and was awarded the title Life Vice President.
1983 – CHSG became a Registered Charity Limited by Guarantee.
1984 – RoSPA awarded CHSG the Silver Award.
1987 – 1989 – Further expansion at the John Ryder Training Centre, which included new lecture rooms, reception and extension for the new Board Room.
1992 – CHSG celebrated the Ruby Anniversary.
1994 – CHSG received accreditation to BS.EN.ISO 9001:1994.
1998 – The Annual Dinner Awards were introduced.
2001 - 2016
2001 – New audio-visual projection system was installed into both training rooms at the John Ryder Training Centre.
2002 – CHSG celebrates 50 years.
2009 – John Ryder Memorial Lecture was integrated into the seminar organised fro SME’s.
2011 – Appointment of the first women onto the Trustee Board of Directors.
2012 – Development and launch of the Temporary Works Courses.
2014 – Appointment of the first women as Co-Chairs.
2015 – Significant refurbishment of the centre took place, which included; new training rooms, break out area, reception, board room new audio-visual equipment.
2016 – Russell Adfield, from HSE, opened our newly refurbished training centre.
2017 -
2017 – Successful launch of the new Fire Diploma in Construction Fire Safety and Fire Risk Management.
2018 – New e-Commerce website with a membership area was launched and CHSG achieved and completed the transition to BS ISO 9001:2015.
2020 – Covid-19 Pandemic meant training was moved from classrooms to Zoom and Teams. The centre’s flat roofs were re-roofed.
2021 – CHSG purchased Virtual Reality headsets and a 360 camera develop training resources and learning experience. The Fire Diploma became a recognised course under, IFSM, IFE and SQA.
2022 – CHSG Celebrates 70 years, as well as celebrating 40 years in Chertsey at the John Ryder Training Centre. The Group launched the CHSG Fire Safety Academy, upgraded the website and launched new fire courses.
