 Much of Drinkwater Park is very flat as it is on the flood-plain of the River Irwell but the valley rises steeply to the east in the area known as Carr Clough.There is a long narrow reservoir running up the centre of the park which, on the 1894 map, appears to have been used as a water supply for the Clough Bleach and Dye Works, although the narrow northern arm has long since been culverted.Most of the land in the park was very open and windswept until the early 1990s, as can be seen on the 1982 photograph by John Davies.