Described in Samuel Lewis's "A Topographical Dictionary of England" (1848) as located in "a bleak situation", Shaw and Crompton is in the valley of the River Beal, which runs northward through the town towards the village of Newhey. The land to the east of the town steadily rises, reaching a height of at the summit of Crompton Moor. To the west, the land reaches around at High Crompton and at Whitfield, and from these highpoints the surface slopes away in all directions. The River Irk rises on Shaw and Crompton's western boundary with Royton. The geology is represented by carboniferous coal measures. The soils of the town are broadly sterile, the poorest being in the upland moors. Rainfall rises steadily from the Cheshire Plain in a northeasterly direction, and totals are between to a year in Shaw and Crompton, which is well above the UK average of and compares to about a year at Ringway.