Are the two Play:1s setup as a stereo pair? If yes then you need to remove this linking first.  Also, can you confirm that you haven't turned WiFi off on the Beam?

Thanks for your reply,

in the app the Beam says strong WiFi connection, Play:1s are NOT setup as a stereo pairing 

Every time I click set up surrounds within the Sonos app it responds with - two compatible Sonos speakers are required to add surrounds……I’ve checked the properties of the Play:1s to make sure they are on S2 system and they are so baffled as to why they won’t connect 

Have you tried adding them to your system first and then creating a stereo pair?

Do the PLAY;1s show up in your controller as separate ‘rooms’? They should be so, to start. 

As an aside, the WiFi/Radio has to be on for both the Beam, and the PLAY:1s, turning it off on either makes connection a lot harder, requiring Ethernet cabling. 

Ooops. Sorry, stepping out ;)

All of the above is happening, WiFi on and in seperate rooms 

Run an update cycle then confirm (version is shown in Settings) that all are on the latest version.

Sorry how do you run an update cycle?

Short of factory resetting the Play 1’s are you certain that they are both Play 1’s and not a Play 1 and a Sonos One. The Sonos naming convention can be confusing. If the latter they cannot be used as a stereo pair nor surrounds. If unsure post a picture of both.

Settings.

Manage

System Updates

Check for Updates.

Confirm they were all done:

Settings

Manage 

About Your System

Scroll down to each Room and look for: Version: 82.x-xxxxx

Both play:1’s

system all up to date

Version: 16.5 (build 82.2-59204)

Moderator Note - Removed image showing device serial numbers.

So after more checking I have started again and it shows 2 systems on my network, system 1 contains the plays and system 2 the beam, guessing this is the issue but how do I get them on the same system 

If you have a lot of Sonos playlists or music services set up on your Play 1’s, reset the Beam (https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/reset-your-sonos-product) and when setting it up again, choose “Ad to existing system” in the app. Then ad the Play 1’s as surrounds to the Beam.

Get that man a beer, I was so focused on the plays when it was the beam that had dropped off 

Annoyingly I have had to leave the house so haven’t actually tested it out but that looks better than it was before; hopefully it’s all fine now 

Well, you’ve got them in one system now. Next move will be to ad the Play 1ks as surrounds to the Beam. See https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/add-surround-speakers-to-a-sonos-home-theater

This has sorted the issue and all works perfectly now, thank you so much for everyone’s help