The brick church with a single dome and bell tower is located on the slope of the high right bank of the Esman River, and its silhouette is clearly visible from both the floodplain and the plateau. Due to its expressive silhouette, the temple serves as an architectural dominant in the village's development and the surrounding landscape.

The exact date of the founding of the village of Kocherhy is unknown. The first mention of it is found in the "Putivl Separate Book for 1594," stored in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts in Moscow. The document states that in 1590, "the village of Kocherizha" was granted to the "children of the boyars" Vasya Goryainov's son Efrem and Meleshka Osipov's son Goryainov.

After the Deulino Truce of 1618, Kocherhy passed to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1638, the village was seized by Alexander Pesochinsky, who received royal confirmation for it in October 1639. After the expulsion of the Poles in 1648, the village remained free. In 1687, Hetman Ivan Mazepa transferred Kocherhy to the Starodub Colonel Mikhail Andreyevich Miklashevsky. After his death in 1706, the village passed to his son Stepan, and then to his grandson Mikhail. The Miklashevsky family owned Kocherhy until the abolition of serfdom in 1861.

In the 18th century, there was a wooden St. Nicholas church in the village, which had fallen into disrepair by the early 19th century. In 1807, a new temple was built on its site at the request and expense of Mikhail Petrovich Miklashevsky. It was constructed according to the same design as the Resurrection Church-tomb of Hetman Razumovsky in Baturin and the Assumption Church in Novy Bykov. Some specialists believe that the architect Adam Adamovich Menelas is the author of the designs for all three churches. The interior of the temple retains a black marble tombstone of the builder, M.P. Miklashevsky, with the inscription: "The Grateful Family to the Most Kind Husband and Father." A brick fence with gates, faced with hewn stone, was built at the end of the 19th century.

In 1843, the parish of the St. Nicholas church was joined by the parish of the Simeon church in the village of Rotovka. An annual procession to the river was held on July 15 in memory of the Baptism of Rus.

In the 1930s, the temple was closed and used as a grain storage facility, during which the iconostasis and other decorative elements were destroyed. The tombstone of M.P. Miklashevsky was broken and thrown away. Some icons and church utensils were hidden in the attic of his house by an elderly parishioner. In Kocherhy, there are stories about how the church managed to avoid destruction. The chairman of the collective farm ordered the dome and bell tower to be dismantled. The men came with tools but, sitting on the steps of the church, lit cigarettes. A passing teacher asked why they had come. Upon learning of their intentions, he said: "Why break it, it is a beautiful church, it has stood for over a hundred years, let it stand further." The men thought and dispersed.

Liturgical life was revived during the German occupation. Upon the reopening of the church, the monument to M.P. Miklashevsky was returned to its place and reinforced with metal straps. The elderly man returned all the relics that had been kept with him. However, in the last twenty years, the church has been repeatedly robbed, with valuable icons and books stolen. Until 2009, the church housed an antimension from 1955, which was replaced with a new one due to its dilapidation.

The church has retained its original forms, without undergoing significant reconstructions. The church has a cross-shaped plan with a semicircular apse and a rounded western arm. The walls are divided by pilasters, and on three sides, there are four-columned porticos of the Tuscan order. Above the crossing rises a massive spherical dome on a cylindrical drum with round windows. Above the western part of the church is a small four-sided bell tower.

The architecture of the church is monumental, with minimal decoration, and the building is executed in the style of high classicism. The columns support an entablature that encircles the entire church. Large windows are arranged in arched niches, above which decorative elements are located. The interior is well-lit, and the dome drum rests on arches. The arms of the cross are covered with vaults, and the altar and western arm end with conches. The vestibule on the first tier of the bell tower is covered with a vault.

The church is built of brick, and the foundations are made of rubble stone. The church is plastered and whitewashed both outside and inside. There is oil painting from the mid-20th century in the pendentives. The original iconostasis has not survived; the current altar barrier was constructed in the second half of the 20th century. The floor is made of boards, and the roofs and dome are covered with roofing steel.

The St. Nicholas church in Kocherhy is one of the outstanding temple structures of the high classicism era in Ukraine. The church is included in the Register of Monuments of History and Culture of Ukraine, but it has not yet been entered into the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine.

Since the early 1990s, the rector of the church has been Mitrophor Priest Viktor Kovalyov. Under the efforts of the priest, ongoing repairs are being conducted, although the church has long been in an emergency state: cornices are collapsing, and the roof is leaking. The attacks by robbers do not add optimism; there were three such attacks just in 2008-2009.