Following his retirement, he pursued his interest in the history of chemistry. He wrote a history of the chemistry department at Victoria University, first published in 2012, with later editions in 2014 and 2018, and a collection of short biographies of notable chemists from Lancashire, published in 2015 as A legacy of Lancashire: its chemists, biochemists and industrialists. He also wrote an autobiography, From Coronation Street to a consummate chemist, published in 2011.
Halton died in Wellington on 23 February 2019.