Shaw and Crompton is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the South Pennines, 2.3 miles (3.7 km) north of Oldham, 3.6 miles (5.8 km) southeast of Rochdale, and 8.7 miles (14 km) to the northeast of the city of Manchester. It is regularly referred to as Shaw.

Historically in Lancashire, Crompton (as it was originally known) and its surroundings have provided evidence of ancient British and Anglian activity in the area. During the Middle Ages, Crompton formed a small township of scattered woods, farmsteads, moorland and swamp with a small and close community of families. The local lordship was weak or absent, and so Crompton failed to emerge as a manor with its own lord and court. Farming was the main industry of this broadly independent and self-supporting rural area, with locals supplementing their incomes by hand-loom woollen weaving in the domestic system.

The introduction of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution initiated a process of rapid and unplanned urbanisation. A building boom began in Crompton during the mid-19th century, when suitable land for factories in Oldham was becoming scarce. By the late 19th century Crompton had emerged as a densely populated mill town. Forty-eight cotton mills - some of the largest in the United Kingdom - have been recorded as existing in the area. At its spinning zenith, as a result of an interwar economic boom associated with the textile industry, Shaw and Crompton was reported to have had more millionaires per capita than any other town in the world. Imports of foreign cotton goods began the decline in the region's textile industry during the mid-20th century; Shaw and Crompton's last mill closed in 1989.

Shaw and Crompton, which covers 4.5 square miles, is a predominantly suburban area of mixed affluence with a population of 21,065 as of 2011. Its double name has been said to make it "distinctive, if not unique". The legacy of its industrial past can be seen in its six surviving cotton mills, all of which are home to large distribution companies, among them Shop Direct Group's Shaw National Distribution Centre, a major employer in the area.

Crompton Moor is one of the largest open spaces run by Oldham Countryside Service. It is a registered common of Greater Manchester, and, since 2003, a designated Site of Biological Importance. Brushes Clough and Pingot are former coal and sandstone quarries on Crompton Moor. During the 1970s, quarrying was halted, the land was reclaimed, and thousands of pine trees were planted. The area has since been used for recreation, including hiking, orienteering, and mountain biking. Brushes Clough Reservoir was constructed in the 19th century by the Oldham County Borough Council, using stone quarried from this site. The area is now managed by United Utilities.

Since the 1960s an unnamed waterfall (provisionally called Crompton Waterfall) cascades off Crompton Moor into the now unused Pingot Quarry forming the Old Brook, a tributary of the River Beal.

The Big Lamp is a local landmark. Originally, it was a six-sided gas-powered public street lamp standing 20 feet (6 m) high at the original cross-road junction of Manchester Road, Oldham Road, High Street, and Church Road. This was demolished on 17 June 1925, when electric lighting was introduced. During the 1970s, the junction was redeveloped to accommodate the new Crompton Way bypass. A large roundabout was built, and a scaled-down replica of the original Big Lamp was erected in its centre. The new Big Lamp is electrically powered and stands about 6 feet (2 m) high.