Appreciate that this is a wee bit late, but I was looking for some info about old roof repairs and stumbled across some original WS stuff. The original lowest membership was £300, as previously pointed out. However, there was an additional annual renewal fee. Of £50. I have a renewal certificate. After this came the change to monthly contributions. My very hazy recollection of this is that it was mandatory to contribute in order to retain membership. As other people have alluded, things were pretty fluid in the first couple of years, so I could well be wrong about that, but a fiver a month is pretty close to fifty quid annually.