From the Town class to the Hawkins and County classes

Role and design lineage differ from simple commissioning order. Although the Arethusa class followed the Towns as the next light-cruiser class, its much smaller displacement and oil-fired machinery made it a different kind of ship. The Town hull instead led through the wartime Atlantic-cruiser idea to the Hawkins class and then the County class. That lineage helps explain why the old hulls offered more rebuilding potential than their age suggests.