Suddenly asked for £52 for the renewal of my web domain

[#1]

I had quite a shock yesterday when I received an email from Plus Net saying my web domain would expire in February and you would need a renewal fee of £52.  Have I missed something here?  The web site in question is one I built for our local church some years ago and (I think) has cost me £1, probably per year.  Not being terribly technical I don't understand where this new charge has come from.  Could you please explain?  What I really need is free hosting as it's not a large site and also the church can't afford such a sum of money for a web site.
Jeanner

[#2]

When you look at the fine print that indeed is the cost that you signed up to. It is never going to be free because you are paying Nominet charges. Though I don't know why Plusnet is so keen to drive people to other companies. I'd host everything on Plusnet if it was closer to the £2.99 that I pay with a popular hosting company. But then you'd have to pay for external hosting so that levels out the cost a bit.

[#3]

another option for a church is an umbrella domain from the main church - and a subdomain for individual diocese's , churches
for example if its an Anglican church
http://anglican.org/

[#4]

If you own the domain I think you can transfer it to another Registrar.
The stupid thing is that .co.uk domains are £9.79 for 2 years from Just the Name - who are part of PlusNet