Globe Artichoke

I had a lovely Globe Artichoke on my allotment. It grew to a huge size and was covered in heads almost ready for picking. I went up tonight and it had collapsed outwards leaving only a stump of root in the ground. I think it was too heavy to carry its own weight and the heavy rain we had today probably weighed it down too much.
Heigh Ho perhaps it will live on to re grow next year.
I should have supported it and I did have a little alarm bell ringing in my head about it last week but I was too busy with other things to do anything about it.
Has anyone else had this experience? I've looked at several gardening books regarding the cultivation of Globe Artichokes but not one of them mentions the possibility of the plant becoming too big to support itself.

I had a very similar experience earlier this year except that the base had rotted though. Possibly because I had mulched around the base over winter (I didn't cut the plant down as per normal instructions). Happily, since then the stump has regrown and I'm hopeful that it might produce a globe or two.

Don't dig the stump out!

According to Mr. Titchmarsh.....  Globe artichokes do not need staking!   Mine are now quite large, not yet full height, I would say around waist high and so far definitely do not need staking..... They are in a sheltered place though.   
A farmer I know in France grows them commercially, he has fields of them and definitely no stakes.