The Artichoke And Cottage Adjoining At East

The Artichoke and the adjoining cottage are a public house and cottage located in Christow, with origins dating back to the late 17th century or earlier. The building has undergone several phases of interior remodeling and extension. It features whitewashed plastered cob and stone rubble with a thatched roof that is half-hipped at the left end and hipped at the right end. There are two axial stacks with brick shafts, one shaft positioned in front of the ridge to the right, and two rear left lateral stacks.

The building is situated on a narrow V-shaped site in a prominent village location. Although the original plan form has been obscured by alterations to the internal partitions, it is essentially a single depth block that may have originally contained three rooms. The small cottage at the right end may be a later addition. An early 19th-century two-storey lean-to is located at the rear right (north elevation), along with a late 19th or 20th-century brick lean-to with a corrugated iron roof at the rear left, both of which back directly onto the main road through the village.

The exterior is two storeys high with an asymmetrical arrangement of windows on the south elevation, featuring four windows for the public house and two for the cottage. There are two doors leading to the public house, and the fenestration includes 2-, 3-, and 5-light 19th or 20th-century casements with glazing bars. The rear elevation has a door leading to the public house, another door to the left into the cottage, and a variety of timber casements along with a sash window. One first-floor casement window is likely from the 18th century and has square leaded panes. There is also one window on the ground floor and one on the first floor in the left gable end.

Inside, the left-hand room features a chamfered stopped crossbeam, while the right-hand room has an open fireplace with stone rubble jambs and a chamfered timber lintel. The roof apex was not inspected during the survey in 1987, but various principal rafters are visible on the first floor, including the foot of one probable late 17th-century face-pegged jointed cruck, with the other foot of the truss truncated for the insertion of a window. The building holds a crucial position in the village.