For some time I had on my mind that there was another origin for the name Midgley. Since I was a child I had puzzled why my surname, perhaps like your own, appeared twice in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Surely it would cause havoc with the post [U.S: mail]. The thought lay at the back of my mind. I began to research, slowly at first, then a small avalanche. Tom Mitchell in Tasmania sent me an email in 1998 in which he said he had met a person who had found a reference to an origin of the name. This person had told him that a "Norman had come across the channel with William I and plonked himself and his family in Yorkshire".
I didn't follow this up for some time as I was chasing skeletons in the cupboard in the 1700's

The jig-saw puzzle began to appear when I looked more closely at the origins of the two village names.
Midgley near Halifax was recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 as MICLEI but the hamlet of Midgley near Wakefield did NOT appear in the D.B. but was first referred to in the 1100's as MIGELAIA. That is, the one near Wakefield developed AFTER the Normans arrived in England [1066].
The pronunciation of these names I thought might be different, after all if we try to pronounce Miclei it sounds 'softer' than Migelaia. Following up a lead I received from David and Milnethorpe Midgley in Tasmania, I found a reference to a Sir William de Miggeley. This Bill Miggeley sounded like the 'hard' pronunciation.
What excited me was he had been granted lands near Wakefield in the 1300's, which I knew were adjacent to Sandal Castle the seat of the Norman family Warrene.

Miggeley could sound more like the Migelaia from the 1100's. Thinking, thinking, have a sleep, think more, research more [construct the Midgley coats of Arms], move the pieces around.- perhaps they had two derivations, one pre-Norman [Miclei] and the other Norman-French. The name Miggeley as spelled in a French novel in the Cevennes. Mmm, why would the name of a knight who lived in England in the 1300's appear in a French novel by an author with the name Raoul Warrene. Coincidence?

A lot of Norman families seemed to have a great deal of contact with the kings, always warring in the north against those marauding Scots. Warrenes, Lancaster, Delaci, kings deposed , kings ascending, favourites, land disputes, baronial arguments, wars, knights, plagues ... interesting stuff and fills the voids of an otherwise skeletal genealogy, explains why things happened, or why they didn't.
Caltraps, why caltraps?

Key words and sentences appeared, Falaise, Normandy, estate-"Field of the Fly", French chivalry, Muschamp from French Musca [field fly], champ ['field' as in Champs Elysee- the Elysian fields, Champignon,- the field mushroom, champagne!] Look on my map of France, find Falaise, just south of Caen in Normandy, between Lassy [de Laci lands] and the Varrene river [Warrene lands] on the way to Calais, William I's embarkation point in 1066. There's even Crecy.
More, three flies on a coat of arms, a funny story about each generation of Muschamps and then the statement near the end of the article:
"........many descendants from the old Muschamp estates in Normandy, and many English families bearing the names of Musgrave, Moxon, Mussom, Mossop, Mounsey and Midgley come from this stock.....settled in West Riding of Yorkshire".
There was even a mention of my 'old friends' an earl Warrene in there described clandestinely as the Earl of Surrey fighting in Northumberland.
Durham seems to crop up, remember, there's another Midgley in Durham Co.
Print off, turn off the trusty rusty dusty.  Highlight the parts I think are genuine information. Thinks.
About to go to bed. Light comes on. Fly field, field = ley,  musca = fly, fly= midge, this could be "Midgefield", or better still completely Anglicise it, "Midgeley"! Muschamp = Midgley! The cunning devils Anglicised their name! Even part of the web address is "flyfield" You are a Muschamp you chump! Wife by this time thinks I've gone mad,  but I'm just obsessed. "Have tomorrow off dear" but no, I only went back to work today. She was still unimpressed.

Can't sleep turn the dreaded machine on again, fire it up, search Muschamp, there it is, the main page, open it up.
Good, loads faster than some of my graphics heavy pages [must do something about that!], whats this say, Muschamp Family name? Scan down page. Origins of the name. what was that coat of arms again, Mmm three bees. Hang on they look like caltraps! Painted black from a distance on a shield they would distinctly look like caltraps!  Branches of the family arms? Evolution of the family arms? Print off some more. Go to bed. Fitful sleep but what an avalanche!

The funny side of the Muschamp history at:  Muschamps by Arthur Muschamp
The Muschamp Coat of Arms at: Main Muschamp Page
Michael  Muschamp is from Leeds, in the heart of the West Riding, by God, the Normans have landed! Remember, the Normans are descended from the Vikings who settled in Normandy.
In March 2005, Ian and Viv Midgley in South Africa met a Frenchman, living in Johannesburg who was born with a Midgley surname. He related to Ian how Midgley is a French family name and was surprised to learn that the name is found in Yorkshire. The spelling of the name is identical but the pronunciation is Mid - gley, [a hard pronunciation] very much like Miggeley. The Frenchman in question now anglicises his name to Midgley as it causes too many problems. [As if Midgleys didn't know that, I am surprised he still doesn't!]    Yorkshire-Normandy linguistic connection

Q A question we might ask now is did the original [Thomas?] de Miggeley come with  the Conqueror or did he arrive somewhat later as Tom Mitchell has alluded to.
The "Falaise Roll" with about 8-9,000 names of those who accompanied William [Guillaume]  might throw some light on this question if anyone can find a copy. The "Battle Abbey Roll",  composed of a number of subsequent and possibly fraudulent additions differs from the Falaise roll.

Falaise Castle erected on a chalk bluff, is the birthplace of William the Bastard, later William the Conqueror or William I of England. William's father was Robert the Devil, Duke of Normandy who fathered William through Herleva (Herleve)* the daughter of William the Tanner, a burgher [town councillor] of Falaise. As Herleva was not of the nobility William could not marry her, thus Herleva was married off to a Norman lord by whom she had two sons, Robert and Odo (i.e. half-brothers to William). Both half-brothers supported William in his campaign to take England, Odo later becoming the bishop of Bayeaux. It was Odo who commissioned the making of the Bayeaux tapestry which is believed to have been made in England.

William died at Rouen from a combination of dysentry and intestinal damage due to horse-riding at  the age of 60 on 6th September 1087 and was buried at Caen. [Rouen is is the burial place of Joan of Arc, 1431].
The Muschamp estate was situated near Falaise, it is likely that William I was Muschamp's direct feudal overlord and therefore they knew each other!

* Note, Herleve is also recorded as Herlote which may be either a derivation or derived from  the term harlot [from Old French, Herlot, rascal] perhaps used by the English in a derogatory way towards the parentage of the leader of the Norman invaders."The Chronicle of the Counts of Anjou" records the son of Robert the Magnificent, Duke of Normandy as being William an illegitimate son,  lightly referring to him  as "an upright man who conquered England". Equally the title "Count of Anjou" may have led to even more insults being thrown by the vanquished at the conquering Normans. There was no love lost between these two disparate groups during the early years of colonisation, the "Harrying of the North", when every male over the age of 15 was butchered, made sure of that.