Martins Shop, With House And Gates On West Corner

Martins Shop, with house and gates, is located on the west corner of the Market Place in Castle Cary. This building dates from the mid-18th century and is possibly the work of Nathaniel Ireson. It is constructed of Cary stone rubble, featuring a brick facade in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings, all of which is now colourwashed. The roof is covered with asbestos cement slates and has coped gables, along with brick chimney stacks topped with moulded stone caps.

The structure is two storeys high and consists of five bays. It has a plinth, small rusticated quoins, a band course, a cornice, and a plain coped parapet. The windows are 12-pane sash types set in architraves with quintuple keystones, with the lower bay 5 featuring paired windows. The early 20th-century shopfront projects slightly between bays 1 and 3 and includes a pair of glazed doors in a central recess beneath a deep fascia. Between bays 3 and 4, there is a large six-panel door that is accessed by four steps and is topped by a radially glazed fanlight within a semi-circular arched opening. This opening is framed by fluted Doric pilasters, part of an entablature, and an open pediment hood.

On the south-west side elevation, there is another sash window with an architrave, as well as a former semi-circular arched doorway that may feature a 12th-century roll and label mould, similar to the fragments found at the nearby George Hotel. The interior has been modified and significantly extended for shop use. At the western corner of the property, there are a pair of 19th-century wrought-iron gates mounted on square rod-posts, with a segmental arched overthrow. The gate rails have necked spear-points and sweeps leading to urn finials at the hinged ends, and the gates are covered with sheet metal on the street side.