ABSTRACT
Together with the military installations, the growth of urban centres was a completely new experience for Britain during the Roman period. It has been claimed that there were towns in Iron Age Britain, but these were very different in appearance. They much resembled other Iron Age settlements outwardly but with a greater density of buildings. The materials of construction and the form of the houses remained very similar. Consequently the arrival in Britain of closely spaced rectangular buildings was a considerable departure from what had gone before, and had a greater effect on the landscape, since straight lines and right angles are foreign to nature, whereas curves are not; however, they were restricted to some two dozen major and seventy to eighty minor towns.
