OK - to be honest . . . . Travelodge + Lorry Park + Scunthorpe -- all together add up to about the dreariest situation imaginable.

Spring for the Premier (though even that would be fairly depressing since there is still the "Scunthorpe factor")

I don't think either pf those will work for you if you won't have a car, as they are both out of town.

Have you looked at Tripadvisor ? Number 2 after the PI is the Wortley which is fairly central and used to be the best hotel in town (a favourite for weddings) and seems to get all possitive comments. The Clamart is new to me and is very central, although it gets mixed reviews. I also don't remember the Beverley (#3) which looks quite nice and gets good comments - it's in town but not central

Where exactly in Scunthorpe do you need to be ? Do you all need to be there and for how many days ?

Really, I'd still be inclined to stay in Sheffield and get the train over each day. (Some take as little as 56 minutes.) Or hire a car and stay somewhere nice.

There's a halfway decent Travelodge in Sheffield, within walking distance of the station. Some of the rooms on the lower floors facing out across the city are a bit noisy (traffic etc) but those at the back with no view are quieter. It's a good location with access to the buses and tram, and just a shortish walk up the hill to the Cathedral and central shopping area.

Actually I'm quite a fan of Travelodges in general. I've stayed in them all over England. Mostly they are OK, but there are some fairly grim ones (one on the M3 springs to mind!). However I've found the beds are always comfortable and the linens have always been clean and smell and feel quite nice.

Thing is, you do get what you pay for, and for just £19 a night, maybe £29 a night, you can't expect too much.

Premier Travel Inns tend to be of a slightly higher class, as it were, and despite their current claims of rooms for as little as £29 a night, I've never found them available for my proposed date of stay!

Travelodge was fine. Not fancy, but clean and warm and good-sized rooms. There was a pub next door that had OK food and was welcoming to the 14-year-old. Tesco was across the way so we could buy food, plus there was a bus-stop at Tesco so that we could take the bus into town if we needed to. The lorry park was not a problem at all.

Lincoln Cathedral and castle were a wonderful day. I was fortunate to have a cousin drive me to and from Lincoln so I don't know how the public transportation would have been. Lincoln was definitely worth the trip.

Skipped Sheffield, but had a wonderful day in York. We took the train there and back very easily. We had four-day Britrail passes so we didn't have to buy tickets at all.

We bought phones at the Carphone Warehouse in Earl's Court when we arrived in England. They were 99 pence per phone (yes, 99 pence) and then we got 10 pounds of phone calls which included 300 textmessages. Having the phones made a huge difference in being able to split up and then find each other.

cferrb, thanks for reporting back.

glad you had such a good time!